Benjamin Franklin Timeline

January 17. Born in Boston, the youngest son of Josiah and Abiah (Folger) Franklin. (January 6, 1705 by "Old Style" reckoning).

1715

Final formal year of schooling

Heard Increase Mather preach

1717

Begins reading Plutarch, Defoe, and Cotton Mather

Invents a pair of swim fins for his hands

Briefly indentured as a cutler

1718

Apprenticed to his brother James, a printer.

Blackbeard the Pirate is captured; Franklin writes a ballad on the occasion

1720

Moved away from home into a boarding house

Stopped attending church so he could use Sunday to study

At a Boston town meeting, Ben's father Josiah is chosen as a town scavenger for 1721

1721

Brother James Franklin starts publishing The New England Courant

Smallpox epidemic in Boston and controversy over vaccination

Becomes "a thorough Deist"

1722

Becomes a vegetarian (in part he is motivated by a distaste for flesh, but also because he can save money and buy more books)

1723

Takes over the publishing of the Courant after brother James is jailed due to "contempt" charges.

(Sept.) Runs away from apprenticeship, goes to New York and then to Philadelphia, where he gains employment as a printer.

Takes lodging with John Read whose daughter Deborah will become Franklin's wife in 1730

1724

Returns home to Boston to try and borrow money from his father to start print shop. Is denied.

Returns to Philadelphia and courts Deborah Read.

Under encouragement from PA Governor William Keith travels to London in order buy printing equipment. Keith's letters of credit for him never materialized and Franklin is stranded in London. Remains in London working as a printer working for Samuel Palmer.

1725

Publishes his first pamphlet: "A Dissertation upon Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain"

Leaves Palmer the printer for the larger shop of John Watts.

Attends theater, reads voraciously, and hangs out at coffee houses

Back in Pennsylvania, Deborah Read marries John Rogers in August

1726

In July, returns to Philadelphia and works for Thomas Denham, a merchant who had loaned him the money to return home. Franklin works as a bookkeeper and shopkeeper in a store which sells imported clothes and hardware.

1727

Suffers first pleurisy attack

Leaves job with Denham

Is rehired by printer Keimer

It is in 1727 or 1728 that Franklin has an affair with a woman that results in the birth of his illegitimate son William in 1728 or 1729

In England, George I dies and is succeeded by George II

In early October quits Keimer after quarreling only to be rehired later in the month — Keimer can find no one to cut currency like Franklin.

Helps to establish the Junto, a a society of young men who met together on Friday evenings for "self-improvement, study, mutual aid, and conviviality."

1728

In June, establishes a Philadelphia printing partnership with Hugh Meredith; rents a building that serves as home and printshop

Composes "Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion"

Deborah Read's husband John Rogers steals a slave and absconds from Philadelphia

1729

Writes a pamphlet entitled "The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency"

Purchases The Pennsylvania Gazette from Samuel Keimer

1730

Elected the official printer for Pennsylvania

Takes a common law wife Deborah Read Rogers on 9/1

Franklin buys out his printing partner Hugh Meredith

Fire destroys the southern part of Philadelphia and Franklin starts agitating for fire protection programs

1731

Joins the St. Johns Freemasons Lodge

Drew up the Library Company's articles of association on July 1st. The Library Company is the first lending library in the country, though it is still private.

Sponsored his journeyman Thomas Whitmarsh as his printing partner in South Carolina, Franklin buys the printing press and types in return for 1/3 of the profits over a six-year term — in effect becoming a printing franchiser.

Franklin rents commercial space to his mother-in-law who sells "her well-known Ointment for the ITCH," a "Family Salve or Ointment, for Burns or Scalds."

Prints an article in the Gazette on the imminent passage of the "mortifying" Molasses Act

Publishes the first edition of "Poor Richard's Almanack" on December 28

1733

Francis Folger Franklin is baptized at the Anglican Christ Church. Deborah attends this church, while Benjamin had stopped attending a Presbyterian church the year before.

1734

Is elected Grand Master of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Masons of PA

Buy property on Philadelphia's Market Street. Eventually he will put together several lots of land on Market Street. These will house his print shop and retail space. Today, this property forms Franklin Court.

George Whitefield preaches to enthusiastic crowds numbering in the thousands; buys 5,000 acres on which he intends to build a school for African-Americans. School not built. Franklin prints much material for Whitefield.

1741

Advertises the "Franklin Stove"

Published the first edition of "The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle," one of America's earliest magazines. It failed after six issues.